Class-action suit seeks $50M from hedge fund manager

Cincinnati.com – A longtime Cincinnati money manager already targeted in several civil suits is also being sued in federal court on allegations he bilked about 200 investors out of more than $50 million.

The class-action suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Cincinnati, likely will slow the progress of the already-complex civil suits that began this summer. Like the earlier suits, the latest filing targets not only Glen Galemmo, but his wife, Kristine Galemmo; alleged business partners Edward C. Blackledge and Wiley B. Kyles; and a slew of limited liability corporations that Galemmo formed.

The latest suit is filed on behalf of two Cincinnati men – John Capannari and John Anderson – who claim to be among 200 investors who were “fraudulently and unlawfully induced … to invest over $50 million of their money from pension plans, IRAs, retirement accounts and other personal investment accounts in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the history of Hamilton County.”

Capannari and Anderson invested a combined $1.5 million on Oct. 29, 2012, according to the suit. The men allege that Galemmo and his cohorts repeatedly assured them that their money was safely invested, but in reality the defendants used the investments as “their own personal ‘cookie jar,’ withdrawing whatever they personally needed.”